A blueprint for land pooling

A blueprint for land pooling

What is land pooling policy?
Under the land pooling policy, the land parcels owned by individuals or a group of owners are legally consolidated, via transfer of ownership rights to the designated land pooling agency which later transfers the ownership back to the land owners. These land owners are then entrusted with the development of such areas.

Why has DDA introduced the land pooling policy in Delhi in the proposed ‘urbanisable’ areas?
According to DDA, land acquisition and planned development has not kept pace with the increasing demand of urbanisation during the last five decades. Moreover, the process of acquisition is being increasingly challenged by land owners due to low compensation as compared to the market value. So in the land pooling policy either the developers buy land from farmers at the market rate and hand it over to DDA or the farmers can themselves become developers by tying up with construction companies. This will avert land acquisition complications.

How much land will a developer get back from DDA?
According to the DDA’s land pooling model, there are two categories of land pooling – (i) if the developer owns 20 or more than 20 hectare of land, DDA will return 60% of land to him and retain 40%.
(II) If the developer’s land parcel measures less than 20 hectare, DDA will return 48% of land and retain 52%

Zones which will be a part of the policy
According to the land pooling policy, notified on September, 2013, the immediate urban extension is to be in the zones of J, L, M, N and P (I&II).

How long will it take for the scheme to get operational?
On November 18, 2014, DDA sent the final regulation of the scheme to the Ministry of Urban Development, which has to give its approval for notification. Once the regulations get notified, DDA will invite developers to apply for deposit of land.

What’s the minimum size of the land parcel that a developer must have to participate in the land pooling scheme?
The minimum size of the land parcel that the developer will have to hand over to DDA is five acres.
He can even own various plots of different sizes in the land pooling zones and the consolidated size of the plots should not be less than five acres.

How is land ‘returned’?
According to DDA, whenever it acquires around 60% land from a particular sector of the land pooling zones, it will hold a draw and return land to the developers. It is not necessary that the developer get the same parcel that he handed over to DDA.